Stay alert with work done on your car

[KraftyPg]

Saw a letter in today's Car Guide (lift out in the news paper) about an 07 D40, second owner buys a car serviced independently before he got it then takes it to Nissan since change of owner. Nissan have told this guy that the sump plug has been tightened too much and has been plugged and that now the plug is failing and he has to replace the whole sump at something like $470. Not getting any claim on warranty the guy has tried to requested the independent mechanic pay the cost of the replacement sump to which you can guess the answer, the Cars Guide "expert" reckons replacing the sump would be a bit extreme given the description of the problem.

Obviously this sort of thing could happen anywhere not just when Nissan get hold of a car but it probably should be a reminder to all that it pays to check the work you get done as well as check that parts need replacing when a mechanic says they do.

 

[Al]

nissan prefer to just leave the plug out. no chance of over tightening then.

 

[KraftyPg]

Actually I think someone on this forum a few weeks ago had a problem with Nissan not doing their sump plug uptight, not sure who that was but I'm sure it was here.

 

[maddogrc]

Actually I think someone on this forum a few weeks ago had a problem with Nissan not doing their sump plug uptight, not sure who that was but I'm sure it was here.

its those damn pussy weak apprentices i tell you!!!

i find sump plug tightness pretty easy, loose is loose, and when doing it up tight it WILL stop when its good and tight. pretty obvious when over tightening....and thats just using a spanner, no socket wrench with a breaker bar lol

key word BREAKER

 

[Beergutz]

Apprentices? or are they using Trades Assistants?????????????????

 

[WIR35]

Does anyone know whether there is a set ratio of apprentices to tradesmen when it comes to employing apprentice mechanics? I know in electrical, it must be one apprentice to one tradesmen, as in to indenture a new apprentice, you must have the correct ratio of employees to have 1:1. This is so that each apprentice theoretically always has one tradesman with them at all times.

We had 12 people working in the office (project managers, estimators, storemen, general manager) who were all licenced electricians, so that meant we could have more apprentices than tradesmen out in the field, which wasn't bad because luckily we had an excellent batch of apprentices. I was just wondering whether they do the same at mechanic shops? (eg. using their trade qualified management staff as "tradesmen" for ratio purposes) Whenever I am at Nissan Service department, there always seems to be a lot more guys that look like they're fresh out of school, than older tradesmen (same goes with Holden, Ford, etc etc)

I get a bit of a bee in my bonnet about being charged $120/hr for a 16yo apprentice working on my car (they don't differentiate on their invoices whether it is a tradesman or an apprentice, they just call them a "technician".)

 

[KraftyPg]

No doubt the reason they use "technician" is to stop the complains from people not wanting to pay $120 for an apprentice, unfortunately dealers aren't stupid they know what they can and can't get away with when it comes to getting money.

I don't know about the ratio for mechanics but I do know an apprentice mechanic who has completed his trade school and nearly finished the working side of things yet is still a long way from someone who I'd trust to work on my car alone.

I don't doubt that some of the slack "leave it to someone else" attitude is as much a product of his upbringing as it is his trainers at work but as a 4th year apprentice he still can not strip down an engine and completely rebuild it without supervision. We learnt to do that on an old Camira engine in year 12 at tech school FFS. If the engine didn't go by the time we finished it we didn't pass the class, yet this guy can't do it after 4 years on the job and in trade school. He is so cocky because he's done his trade school work and thinks he is only months away from being a ticketed mechanic, yet even can't work alone and can't be trusted alone.

Not all apprentices are like that I grant you but it does make letting a apprentice mechanic work on your car an easy decision.

 

[WIR35]

I might bring that up next time I'm there. If they're going to charge me for a qualified mechanic, then I want a qualified mechanic working on my car

 

[KraftyPg]

That might backfire, they might say their expertly trained apprentice is $120 and the qualified guy is $180, or you are paying for one semi expert doing the work and one qualified guy to watch so it's a bargain...still will be interesting to hear their response.

 

[WIR35]

Haha, yeah they might! I can safely say that if that's their answer then I'll get my dentist to change my oil, would be cheaper!!!

 

[Aido]

Even still a stripped sump plug thread in a pan can be repaired for less than $100.
Be buggered if I'd pay for a new pan plus fitting.